Friday, May 31, 2013

Muttai Kuruma | Egg Kuruma Recipe





Muttai kuruma is one of my favorite side-dish for most of the South-Indian breakfast. TH loved it and I make it at least once in a month. Idlis are the best complimenting breakfast for this kuruma. I heard it goes well with idyappam but I haven’t tried it out.


Generally muttai kuruma is done by adding the boiled eggs to the gravy. But here I have done it by breaking the eggs directly to the boiling gravy. This allows the eggs to dunk into the gravy completely. I especially loved the dunked eggs. Here is the recipe…. 


Preparation and cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Appala Kootu Recipe


No one will hate the appalam. The crispness of it will make u too crave for another one.  You can always enjoy a meal when u has appalam on ur side. It makes an excellent combination for all the rice varieties and also with the kuzhambu and sambar we make. How it will be when this crispy appalam added to a kootu variety? Interesting!!!


I make this kootu when I don’t have any vegetables in my fridge.  Appala kootu along with kara kuzhambhu makes perfect combination for a week-end meal. I served it with seeraga kuzhambu (recipe coming soon).



Preparation and cooking time: 20-30 mins

Friday, May 24, 2013

Chilli Chicken | Indo-Chinese Recipe


Ah… wat to say about this yummy-looking chicken. *smile*Nowadays am becoming crazy on chilli chicken. We mostly buy chilli chicken from the near-by Indian restaurant to accompany the plain brown rice and I came to know in most hotels they add MSG. This insisted me to try this at home on a Sunday, without adding MSG. Instead of deep frying I patiently shallow fried the chicken pieces. I served it with Jeera Rice.
Check out my Chilli Paneer Recipe for veggie-lovers*smile*


Preparation time: 1 hour 
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Tomato Rasam - Thakkali Rasam Recipe


I always make rasam on all laze Mondays. TH can live his entire life eating rasam and potato-garlic fry. Most of the days I make a simple pepper rasam which he loves to have. I wanted to learn some more varieties of rasam and asked amma. And this time I got this recipe from my appa. I must say, he is the only person to make a rasam so authentic. In my childhood if amma is not at home or not well, appa makes the spiciest rasam, sambar and a fry. We loved eating dat for the entire day… *smile* woooofff!!! Enough of the stories or else I’ll go home-sick…:( and here the recipe comes from my appa…!!!


Preparation time: 3-5 minutes
Cooking time: 6-8 minutes

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Cauliflower Pakoda | Cauliflower Pakora Recipe


I generally don’t prefer to spend time on doing snacks. I prefer to avoid recipes which are deep fried for health concerns. Just to avoid making all this bajjis and bondas, I don’t even have a rack for besan in my kitchen. But now am pushed to get a packet of besan to make use of the frozen cauliflower-broccoli packet which is sleeping in my refrigerator for a long period. TH doesn’t like cauliflowers and broccoli even if it is cooked to perfection. I wanted to make him eat those and the climate which is raining here for almost a week insisted me to cook a pakoda/pakora (which ever u call)…



Who will not like to have a delicious, hot and spicy cauliflower pakoda with a cup of cardamom tea in this chill and rainy climate? Try this out and let me know the comments … 

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: 4-5

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

Ven Pongal | Simple South-Indian Breakfast Recipe


The simplest South-Indian breakfast is Ven pongal... There is no much work involved in it. Keep the rice in cooker and let it do its own work. You need to season it and serve.  TH always needs a perfect accompaniment for this pongal, else he won’t even touch it... Either any of this chutney (click here for recipe) or with tiffin sambar, pongal goes well. 


In most South-Indian hotels they use Dalda instead of ghee. Dalda gives a gorgeous look and taste to the pongal, but it is not good for health. Ghee gives the divine flavor to the pongal and its ur wish to choose ghee or oil. Amma usually makes kathirikkai gothsu. Since I don’t like it much I served it with tiffin sambar and it was awesome.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Spicy Potato Curry - Aloo Curry Recipe - for Chapathi


Potato/aloo spicy curry is my absolute favorite side-dish recipe for chapathi. I learnt it from amma, as usual. She came to know through her neighbor aunt. I personally feel, she makes the world’s best chapathis ever. Her chapathi were sooper soft even it is stored for a day. And this side-dish she makes is the best combo ever, if u really likes the flavors of garlic and cumin seeds. 


Preparation time: 4-5 minsCooking time :15 mins

Friday, May 10, 2013

Strawberry Smoothie



Yippee!!!  Finally I have reached my 50th post. *smile* I must thank everyone for the encouragement and I wish it continues for ever. *smile*
I wanted to post something sweet for my 50th post. Since many of you have asked for some coolers and milkshakes for this hot summer I have planned for uploading a smoothie recipe.*smile*


Before I start, I must tell this… I am not a great fan of fruits. This looks weird!!! Yes I know… Before marriage I will run away from the place when I get a smell of any fruits, especially mangoes and bananas.:( Till now I will not even touch those two fruits. Amma finds so many tricks to feed me fruits in some form… she used to make all juice extracts and I will drink as a tonic…:(( but days rolled on… after knowing all the healthy values of the fruits I have started consuming few fruits, but not mangoes and bananas still!!!


Coming to the recipe, I made strawberry smoothie for TH yesterday and I tried on myself too :P He loved the taste and I used French vanilla ice cream which gives an extra-ordinary taste to the smoothie. *smile*

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Poricha Kuzhambu - Poritha Kuzhambu



Poricha kuzhambu or poritha kuzhambu is something which all the veggies are cooked nicely in the oil. It can be made with or without dal. Mostly people use moong dal/pasi paruppu for making poricha kuzhambu. Here am making without dal. Adding the coconut and cumin paste at the end gives the kuzhambu an extraordinary taste. 



Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Tiffin Sambar - Idli Sambar




We, South-Indians always have a love towards Idli and sambar. We usually make different varieties of sambar. A normal sambar for rice, arachivitta sambar, keerai sambar, manga sambar and the list goes on. In all this sambar varieties one of my very own favorite is tiffin sambar. This is the one which is served only with South-Indian breakfast.


I would say a perfect combination for idly is sambar and chutney. I love to dunk the idlis in hot sambar glazed with different chutneys of top…. Ahh... *smile*how lovely it will be… *smile*  The sambar which we get in HSB is my favorite one. I ll go mad for dat sambar and the chutneys they serve.*smile*



Amma makes this tiffin sambar on Sundays for breakfast. I ll not say it ll replicate the HSB sambar but somewhat nearing to that. I ll pour the sambar on top of mini idlis with a spoon full of ghee. Hmmmm yummy!!!! Here I don’t have mini idli plates. So, I served with normal idlis.





Preparation time: 3-5 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Friday, May 3, 2013

Rice Pakodas - Rice Pakoras - Recipe with the left over rice


This happens to most of us… yeah..!! For me a big head ache is “LEFT OVER” Food items… I don’t like to preserve food in refrigerator. Even if I refrigerate I ll not store more than a day.  I feel it is not good for the health.  I made Egg fried rice yesterday and I cooked rice in excess and I don’t have any other option rather dumping in fridge. But suddenly I got an idea of making it as pakodas as like we get in the streets of South-India. They use besan with lots of onions in it. Here I used the cooked rice as my base with onions in it. I was really very happy for not wasting my food and I turned it into a delicious tea-time snack. This post will definitely help u I believe… *smile*


Preparation time: 3-4 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Wednesday, May 1, 2013